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‘Where did you get that footage from?’ Teddy asked Flick when they’d driven off.
‘Simon.’ Flick thumbed towards the newsagents next door. ‘When I was picking up some milk I overheard him saying that he’d had some new state-of-the-art CCTV cameras fitted at the front, so I thought it was worth a shot asking him if he had any footage. Might be an idea if we get some.Anyway, back to work.’ And she sauntered off back towards the restaurant.
‘You need to put that girl’s wage up,’ said Marielle. ‘Go on, Teddy, you have customers.’
Teddy gave his mother a kiss on her cheek and then returned to his duties.
‘What next,’ said Marielle, shaking her head. Because she was sure as eggs were eggs, there would be another offensive to follow.
In Monday’s edition of theDaily Trumpetwe reported the story of postman Barry Ratcliffe who was causing uproar in Hatfield, Doncaster with his continual wrong deliveries. We stated that Ms Linz Hennegan, chair of the Hatfield Residents Society, ‘had chased him down the street on numerous occasions in order to shake her lettuce in his face’. This should have read ‘shake her letters in his face’. We apologise to Ms Hennegan for any embarrassment cause and have made a donation to the Hatefield Residents Society fund in recompense.
Chapter 24
When they got back to the house, Marielle’s hand paused when opening the door and she turned to Sabrina and said, ‘Do you fancy a little drive? I just thought you might like to see where you were found. Perhaps it might dredge up some memories for you?’
‘It’s worth a go,’ Sabrina answered her. She got into the passenger seat of Marielle’s car and clicked herself into her seat belt.
‘You’re really seeing the best of my son, aren’t you? Throwing dog muck at women and then nearly being arrested,’ Marielle said to her with an uneasy shot of laughter.
‘Bad things happen to nice people,’ Sabrina said. ‘I’m not judging.’
Five minutes later, the car turned up the hill signposted ‘beauty spot’.
‘It’s a misnomer in my opinion,’ said Marielle. ‘It can get dangerously windy up here which is why it was madness that the council should make this into a designated picnic spot. They’ve got far more money than sense. It’s always given me the shivers, this place.’
They pulled in at the top in the exact spot where Polly Potter had parked her car three weeks ago and when she saw the nearby burger van, she felt a tremble in her muscle memory.
‘I came here in a black car,’ she said, letting the image come to her so she didn’t scare it away. She could see herself sitting on one of the benches, waiting, but she didn’t know what for.
Sabrina and Marielle walked over the bumpy grass towards the railings. There was a sign in the burger van window, ‘Back in half an hour’. She’d been waiting for it to open, that’s why she had sat down.
‘Benny Prince who owns the van was the man who found you,’ said Marielle.
‘I should seek him out and thank him.’ Sabrina looked around her as if he should magically appear.
‘Benny Prince is someone people get out of the way of, not go and find. You wouldn’t believe how many of these vans there used to be in this stretch of the coast until Benny moved in and then, bang, all the competition was gone. That said, he does sell really good burgers and ice creams. It isn’t always the way when the big boys move the little boys out and quality becomes a thing of the past.’ Her countenance grew grim and Sabrina knew she was thinking about her son.
‘I could at least write him a note,’ said Sabrina. ‘I don’t suppose you have any paper on you, do you?’
Marielle had a pocket pad and a pen in her bag. Sabrina sat at one of the picnic tables and wrote.
Dear Mr Prince
My name is Sabrina Anderson and I was told you very kindly rang an ambulance for me after finding me up here three weeks ago. I have no recollection how I came to be here and am just out of hospital so please forgive this muchoverdue thank you. Hopefully my memory will return one day and the mystery will be solved. I did hope to see you in person to deliver my thank you and I hope that one day I may catch you to be able to do that. But in the meantime – again, thank you for your kindness.
My very best wishes
Sabrina Anderson x
There was the slightest gap in the van window that she could push the note through, though it took a few attempts; then it sat on his counter where he wouldn’t be able to miss it when he got back.
It was kind of Sabrina to do that, thought Marielle, even if Benny Prince was a likely culprit to have taken her missing handbag and rings. Or maybe she was being unfair to him. Life was making her bitter and more cynical. She’d end up giving Cilla a run for her money if she wasn’t careful.
A lone seagull wheeled above them, checking them out for snacks and squawking with annoyance when he saw their hands were empty. Sabrina looked up and felt dizzy and light-headed, as if she were whirling around. The sound of the seagulls was tied up in her head with the smell of doughnuts sugaring the air, fish and chips, sunshine, laughter, a big man and that small woman with gold-blonde hair.
‘What is it?’ asked Marielle. ‘You’re smiling.’
‘I think I must have come here with my parents,’ said Sabrina, feeling it rather than knowing it. She closed her eyes, hoping to find more, and a soft June breeze caressed her face. She could sense her own happiness here, as if she’d left some of it behind years before to reclaim, and she wondered again why here, why this place. Why was it so special to her?
